Genre-style diversity of interpretations of Ukrainian classics poetry in musical art

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Genre-style diversity of interpretations of Ukrainian classics poetry in musical art

Padalko Viktoriia

The purpose of the article is to reveal a variety of genres and styles, in which musical interpretations of Ukrainian classical poets' texts appear. The methodology. Due to the specific features of the research, the combination of musicology and literary methods should be involved, as well as general scientific methods. So that, the musical analysis and the observation of stage production take place in direct connection with the features of the literal works and in general sociocultural context. Comparative method has been used to identify the characteristic features of such interpretations in different eras and in the works of different artists. The facts were summarised and structured with the use of the analytical method. Scientific novelty of the work lies in the presenting of the genre-style diversity of musical interpretations of the poetry of Ukrainian classics. Features of most musical works of the modern performers are described for the first time. Conclusions. The poetry of Ukrainian classics has a prominent feature - internal musicality, which up till now makes composers and singers turn to it and create their own new interpretations. This feature helps poetry to appear in the great variety of musical genres: from vocal, for example, song, romance or ballade, to genres that are bound with dance or theatre art, such as musical, mono-play, opera, or ballet. Traditionally, musical interpretations of the poetry were related to classical music. However, musicians' attitude to the interpretation of the poetry of Ukrainian classics totally changed in the end of the XX century. After Ukraine reached its Independence, such interpretations have done the «break-out» and widened their stylistic paradigm to the great diversity - from academic acoustics to rock, rap core and many other different styles. To present these features, the musical compositions of the duo «Telniuk Sisters», bands «Komu Vnyz», «Plach Yeremii», «Haidamaky», and «Tartak» were used in the research. The article also illustrates the interpretations of the literary heritage of the classics in ballet art, as a vivid example of the fact that not only vocal works are born from the interaction of words and music. musical interpretation poetry classic

Key words: musical interpretations of the poetry of the classics, synthesis of literature and music, Ukrainian classic poets, Ukrainian pop performers, vocal music, ballet art.

Падалко Вікторія ОлегівнаЈ¬аспірантка Національної академії керівних кадрів культури і мистецтв

Жанрово-стильове різноманіття інтерпретацій поетичних текстів українських класиків у музичному мистецтві

Мета статті - розкриття жанрово-стильової різноманітності музичних творів, які інтерпретують поетичну спадщину українських класиків. Методологія. Специфіка дослідження передбачає поєднання музикознавчих та літературознавчих методів, а також загальнонаукових методів. Так слуховий аналіз музичних творів, спостереження за сценічними постановками художніх номерів відбувається у безпосередній реляції з особливостями творів літературних, а також у загальному соціокультурному контексті. Компаративістичний метод дозволяє виявити характерні ознаки таких інтерпретацій в різні епохи та в творчості різних виконавців. Аналітичний метод дає можливість ці факти узагальнити та структурувати. Наукова новизна роботи полягає у представленні різноманітності жанрів та стилів, у яких постають музичні інтерпретації поезії українських класиків. У роботі вперше розглянуто жанрово-стильові особливості певних музичних творів сучасних естрадних виконавців, які інтерпретують поетичну спадщину українських класиків. Висновки. Провідна риса творів видатних українських поетів, внутрішня музичність, продовжує і сьогодні спонукати композиторів та виконавців створювати нові музичні інтерпретації поетичних текстів. Ця риса дозволяє здобути поезіям музичне обрамлення у цілому розмаїтті жанрів музичного мистецтва - від вокальних, наприклад, пісня, романс, балада, до жанрів, споріднених з хореографічним, театральним мистецтвом, таких як мюзикл, моновистава, опера, балет тощо. Традиційно, музичні інтерпретації поезій були пов'язані з класичною музикою. Проте, наприкінці ХХ ст. у музикантів кардинально змінилося ставлення до інтерпретування спадщини українських класиків. Із здобуттям Україною Незалежності, такі інтерпретації здійснили справжній прорив та розширили свою стильову парадигму to the great diversity - від академічної акустики до року, реп-кору, та багатьох інших стилів. Для ілюстрації було обрано творчість дуету «Сестри Тельнюк», гуртів «Кому Вниз», «Плач Єремії», «Гайдамаки», «Тартак». Також у статті проілюстровано інтерпретації літературної спадщини класиків у балетному мистецтві, як яскравий зразок того, що не тільки вокальні твори народ^ються із взаємодії слова та музики.

Ключові слова: музичні інтерпретації поезії класиків, синтез літератури і музики, українські поети-класики, українські естрадні виконавці, вокальна музика, балетне мистецтво.

The relevance of the research

Outstanding Ukrainian writers left the great heritage of poetry, which even today makes composers and singers turn to it and create their own musical interpretations. Internal musicality of the poems helps them to appear in the great variety of musical genres: from vocal, for example, song, romance or ballade, to genres that are bound with dance or theatre art, such as musical, mono-play, opera, or ballet. In the modern Ukrainian cultural space, the number of musical works based on the texts of Ukrainian classics is increasing. This is facilitated by the general socio-political situation, the growing role of the national idea, and specific reforms aimed to increase the number of quality Ukrainian- language products in media resources. That is why it is so important to understand the peculiarities of the relevant interpretations and to single out the central tendencies.

Analysis of research and publications

The issues of music and literature synthesis are central in the works by O. Afonina, I. Ivanova, Mizitova, O. Zinkevych. In the field of view of musicologists, for the most part, there were traditional classical interpretations that were created in the XIX and XX centuries. Works of O.Frait [1] and V. Redya are aimed at features of such interpretations in vocal genres. The specificity of the interpretation of the poetic classics in the theatre, understanding it as the core of the Ukrainian national ballet performance are the central themes in the research by A. Korol [2] and Markevych. Information about modern interpretations, in the vast majority, can be found only in the interviews with musical performers, composers, on their personal websites and profiles in social networks, in reviews of music critics, and directly, from the research material itself - musical works.

The purpose of the article is to reveal a variety of genres and styles, in which musical interpretations of Ukrainian classical poets' texts appear.

Main part. The poems by Taras Shevchenko are likely to have received the most musical interpretations throughout the history. M. Lysenko became the first interpreter of his heritage.

M.Lysenko's appeal to Taras Shevchenko even gave reason to call the outstanding composer the second Kobzar, because this is a unique example in vocal art in terms of the number of works written on the poems of one poet. M. Lysenko interpreted about a hundred poems, which became songs, poetic solos, choirs, ensembles, different kinds of romances, such as romance-duma or romance-aria, and many others. All of them were written in the «Music to “Kobzar”Ў·collection. Worthy followers of M. Lysenko were H. Alchevskyi, K.Dankevych,A. Kos-Anatolskyi, Liatoshynskyi, Y. Rozhavska, Y. Stepovyi, S.Vorobkevych and others.

Let us turn to the present. Has the literary heritage of classics affected many contemporary musicians? Has the genre-style paradigm of its musical interpretation changed? Traditionally, musical interpretations of poems were bound with classical music. However, musicians' attitude to the interpretation of the poetry of Ukrainian classics totally changed in the end of the XX century. After Ukraine gained its Independence, such interpretations have done the «break-out” and widen their stylistic paradigm to the great diversity - from academic acoustics to rock, rap core, and many other different styles. Due to the complex synthetic nature of modern musical culture, various experiments have become possible, not only at the musical or lexical level, but also at the audiovisual and social level. Exactly this feature gives the opportunity to create plenty of interpretations.

The «Telniuk Sisters» duet (founded in 1986) became the origin of a kind of «revival» of the heritage of Ukrainian poets in vocal art. The first in terms of formation time, they have combined many genres and styles in their repertoire. From the beginning of its existence until now, the band has been characterised by a great variety of creative experiments in sound and self-expression: from academic acoustics to alternative rock. Songs, choral works, sketches, and rock ballads written on the verses of Ukrainian poets have become the embodiment of their searches. The centre of their work is the musical and poetic reinterpretation of the literary heritage of a wide variety of masters of the Ukrainian word: Bohdan-Ihor Antonych, Lina Kostenko, Yevhen Malaniuk, Vasyl Stus, Pavlo Tychyna, Oksana Zabuzhko, and, of course, Taras Shevchenko. The victory at the first musical festival «Chervona Ruta» in their career (1989) was brought by their songs written to the words of Pavlo Tychyna. «Yablunevotsvitno», «Arphamy, Arphamy» and «Ya stoyu na kruchi», which presented the sisters' individual style, lyrical mood, romanticism, combined with powerful female vocals.

Interpretations of poems by the sisters are characterised by the primacy of the word. Music summarises the word with timbre-intonation code, endows it with supersemantic possibilities that are understandable to everyone. In their songs, the duo widely uses the ethnic sound of instruments, such as drymba and sopilka. Lesia Telniuk often performs in the band in an additional role, the role of an instrumentalist, accompanying the singing on the bandura. The sisters' singing is distinguished by an exquisite division into two voices, with frequent echoes, which gives the impression of a living dialogue. A spectrum of specific images: the artist and society, life and death, slavery and freedom, joy and sorrow, are revealed to the listener in a theatrical action, capturing them in a timeless space.

The «Telniuk Sisters» duet is one of those performers whose creative potential was revealed due to their appeal to the best examples of Ukrainian literary art.

The harbingers of Independence were also rock bands that created many bright interpretations with distinctive features. Among the «pioneers» was the group «Komu Vnyz», which appeared on the eve of the collapse of the USSR, in 1988 in Kyiv. Exactly «Komu vnyz» performing musical interpretations of the poems by Taras Shevchenko -«Subotiv» and «Do Osnovianenka» on the stage of «Chervona Ruta» Musical Festival made many other Ukrainian musicians turn to Ukrainian- language-sound [5]. With its own type of gothic rock and dark romantic image, «Komu Vnyz» made a real revolution in Ukrainian music. The features of the songs include recitativeness, static melodies, rich timbre of vocals, sophisticated guitar solos, and inclination towards hard rock and punk rock. After Vladyslav Makarov left the band in 2003, the band got a more electronic sound.

Taras Shevchenko's poetry in the interpretations of«Komuvnyz»vividly demonstrates the national idea and makes a suggestive impression. The texts remain almost unchanged, only some words are rhetorically repeated, gaining additional accents, growing with new, modern associations. The bandleader Andrii Sereda often makes declamatory lyric introductions a capella. In this case, the word uses its capacity and time advantage over the music, quickly adjusting the listener to the desired mood. Accurate repetitions of some words not only play, as already mentioned, a semantic role, but also a sound-intonational one. By the way, repetitions resemble similar techniques in the work of some foreign rock bands, for example, «Rammstein» (Germany, 1994).

The band that also stood at the origins of the musical culture of independent Ukraine and felt the creative power of Ukrainian classics' poetry is «Plach Yeremii». Their genre is sung poetry with deep meaning, intellectual rock music that touches everyone. Taras Chubai, the bandleader, has realised since childhood that poetry should be sung [3]. The unique sound of «Plach Yeremii» was provided by the composition of musicians: Myron Kalitovskyi (drums), Alina Lazorkina (harp), Oleksa Pakholkiv (cello) and Oleh Shevchenko (guitar).

The first song they wrote on the poetry of Ivan Franko was «Yak na vulytsi zustrinesh». The band's attraction to blues-rock and jazz-rock is clearly evident. Verses alternate with dance instrumental interludes, which contrast with the verbal content, creating an effect of light sadness. In the course of the song, jazz improvisation, which is expressed by a part of synthesisers, gradually grows. The melody is somewhat monotonous, includes recitative elements, unlike the next song «Syple snih» (2020). It vividly demonstrates the qualitative evolution of the band's creativity, the crystallisation of their style. The vocal line is characterised by lyrical melodism, breadth, smoothness of vocalisation. The role of words is important. The performer addresses the listener with rhetorical questions, which makes them think, plunge into their own memories and associations. The poem acquires an additional exquisite emotionality and melodiousness. Both vocal and instrumental interludes contribute to the psychologisation of the plot. Gentle, composed backing vocals (Olha Chubai) add expressiveness and atmosphere. In general, the song turned out to be both an excellent interpretation of the work of the outstanding poet and a completely independent work that very organically combines poetic and musical components. Moreover, Taras Chubai released an acoustic version of «Syple snih», where the guitar part rather plays the role of auxiliary accompaniment, so expressive verbal dominance is felt.

Among the band's songs written to the poems of Taras Shevchenko, it is worth noting the English-language version of «Reve ta stohne Dnipr shyrokyi», which has a modern sound, in a rock and roll style with the use of wind instruments in the arrangement.

«Plach Yeremii» also has a song written to the poem of Bohdan-Ihor Antonych, a poet, whose worldview was totally based on music. Taras Chubai subtly felt the mood of the poem «Roste Antonych i roste trava», therefore the melody of the song «Mova Haiova» is characterised by lightness, naturalness, is simply memorable and, even at the first listening, the audience begins to sing along. The performer vividly demonstrates bright optimism and life-affirming principle laid down by the poet. The leitmotif conveys the idea of eternity, continuity of life to the listener. Beautiful nature, concentrated in words, finds its expression in music. The melody preserves the integrity of the phrases and adds special sophistication to the rhythm of the poem, not forgetting the semantic accents. Syncretic artistic images create an atmosphere of fabulousness, enhanced by verbal metaphors.

Another band who appeals to the heritage of Ukrainian classics in a unique style is «Haidamaky». The musicians describe their style as a Cossack rock, which combines Ukrainian authenticity with various influences: from gypsy songs to Jamaican music. Defining feature of the band is that many well-known musicians often are invited to perform together with «Haidamaky» or to take part in the recordings at the studio - for example, Roman Hrynkiv (bandura), Oleksii Kabanov (lyre), Taras Kompaniichenko (kobza), Vitalii Pantso (cymbals), the ensemble of Ukrainian authentic singing “Bozhychi”, Yurii Fedynskyi (bandura) and others. In fact, regular transformations prompted the band to unstoppable creative explorations and to invention of their own style.

The constant leader of the band, Oleksandr Yarmola, provided the general direction of the group to world folk music, both at the level of stylistic features and in the variety of song texts. The reference to the ideas of Taras Shevchenko is evidenced, first of all, by the name of the band and ideological and aesthetic concept («Kobzar» album, 2008).

The idea of a song based on Taras Shevchenko's poem was finally realised in the album «Hody spaty!» (2013). It is symbolic that it was an excerpt from the poem «Haidamaky». The band's interpretation is full of folkloric tendencies, although it is also saturated with foreign language cues and international interspersions - the prominent feature of their compositions. The peculiarity of the interpretation is the positive, life- affirming principle in the description of Ukrainian fate. In their songs, you will not find decadent moods - the minor settings of the text are transformed into a major belief in a bright future.

The interpretations of the poetic texts of the classics in rapcore style are also special. In 2015, the «Tartak» band (founded in 1996) released its song based on Taras Shevchenko's «Kosar». Performed in the band's characteristic style, the recitative song continues existential reflections on life and death in the plane of poetic metaphor. The attraction to punk rock and hip-hop determines the peculiarities of the melody and the style of vocalisation.

All of these bright interpretations are examples of a wide genre and style diversity of interpretations of classics' poetic texts in modern vocal music. However, can there be interpretations of literary heritage without words? The expressive influence of literary art can be seen in programmatic instrumental music, which Steven Paul Sher called one of the types of musical-literary relations [4]. Besides, typical for Ukrainian cultural space are the interpretations of poetic texts in the art of ballet, i.e., the ballets which librettos are based on the works of Ukrainian classics. Thus, starting from the 20th century, well-known plots of Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, Taras Shevchenko were translated into the language of dance. Artistic images from literary works are transformed into symbols that are realised at all levels of a ballet performance - lexical, figurative, spatial- compositional, and thematic. A characteristic feature of the vocabulary of such ballets is the synthesis of elements of folk and classical dance.

The most famous Ukrainian ballet is «Lisova pisnia» («The Forest Song»), based on Lesia Ukrainka's eponymous drama extravaganza, created in 1936. Composer Mykhailo Skorulsky and his daughter, Nataliia Skorulska, author of the libretto, interpreted the content of the literary work quite accurately, preserving the main images, the course of the plot, and the dramatic development of events.

The means of musical and choreographic expressiveness recreated the emotional colour and the interweaving of the fairy tale with reality. Of course, for the harmonious realisation of the idea, certain changes were made in accordance with the laws of the ballet genre. Some episodes of the main work were shortened, while others, on the contrary, were expanded. Music of the ballet has a clear connection with folk songs motifs. Its core consists of the Volyn folklore, many of the melodies were collected by Lesiya Ukrainka herself during the folklore expeditions. Penetrating melody and expressive imagery made the ballet not only comfortable for performers, but also easy to perceive for the recipient.

It is also worth noting how poetic images are interpreted in ballet. Let us look at the image of Mavka. Against the background of the special musicality and sensuality of the sound, the female image grows into a true symbol of the beauty and changeability of nature. For such figurative and emotional depth, traditional ballet means are not enough, therefore there is a need for considerable psychologisation, achieving expressiveness in every movement or gesture.

The main interpretation of Taras Shevchenko's poems is ballet «Lileia». It is a combination of images and motifs of the prominent works of Kobzar. And again we can see the synthesis of folk and classical traditions both in music and in choreography. The composer, Kostiantyn Dankevych, did not make the citations of folk melodies. He generalised them, giving the musical score lyricism and danceability. An interesting feature of the ballet is that, with many subsequent interpretations, everything underwent changes, except for the music.

Thus, we can divide the main features which the ballets based on Ukrainian poetry classic have in common: combination of folk and classical traditions, which helps Ukrainian national ballet performance gain an expressive ethnic flavour; subtle psychologism and saturation of all of the elements with meaning. Analysed ballets are the bright examples of interpretations of Ukrainian classics' poetry that continue to live in updated productions and affirm the moral and aesthetic potential of the national idea in a prominent place of world art.

Conclusions

The research demonstrates a great variety of genres and styles, in which musical interpretations of Ukrainian classics' poetry appear. This diversity, namely in vocal music, was caused by a total change of a worldview of Ukrainian musicians in the end of the XX century. After Ukraine reached its Independence, such interpretations have done the «break-out» and widened their stylistic paradigm - from academic acoustics to pop, rock, rap core, and many other different styles. The poetry of Ukrainian classics has a prominent feature - internal musicality, which helps poetry to appear in different musical genres: from vocal, for example, song, romance or ballade, to genres that are bound with dance or theatre art, such as musical, mono-play, opera, or ballet. The most famous Ukrainian ballets based on the literary heritage of the classics were chosen as a vivid example of the fact that not only vocal works are born from the interaction of words and music. In the modern Ukrainian cultural space, the number of musical works based on the texts of

Ukrainian classics is increasing. That is why it is so important to understand the peculiarities of the relevant interpretations and to single out the central tendencies. The phenomena of this «spiritual liberation» revived by «Telniuk Sisters», «Komu vnyz», «Plach Yeremii», «Haidamaky» today has the next period. Period, when Ukrainian culture again fights for the life along with its folk.

References

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2. Korol, A. Ukrainian ballets as ethnomarkers.

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3. Lukyashko, K. «Taras Shevchenko - the first Ukrainian pop star^> - Taras Chubai. Retrieved from: https://gazeta.ua/articles/culture/_sevchenko-persha- ukrayinska-popzirka-taras-cubaj/758010 [in Ukrainian].

4. Scher, S. P. (1968). Verbal music in German Literature. New Haven; London : Yale University Press, 149 [in English].

5. Komu Vnyz. Official site. Retrieved from: http://komuvnyz.com/ [in Ukrainian].

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